Book Review: The Lady in the Mirror by Charu Vashishtha

The Lady in the Mirror by Charu Vashishtha is a collection of eight short stories dealing with retrospection and a few other vital themes that matter in our lives. Throughout the eight stories, the author has put on offer a gamut of experiences, events, circumstances, morals, and most importantly emotions. The stories in the collection are short but easy to read and understand. Probably, this is the most significant thing about the book. In fact, in all stories, the author has kept woman (lady or girl) in the center, thus the title ‘The Lady in the Mirror’ is aptly perfect.

Apart from love and deeds, the book is also high on spiritual faith, for instance the first story (The Lost Meera) is all about that. Further, the author tried to explore the other side of the coin by highlighting the plight of women in gaining identity and privileges; this is best conveyed through the story ‘The Mysterious Playwright’.

The story ‘The Comic’s Tragedy’ depicts the value of resilience amid tough situations. This story was a bit light on intensity but high on humour. ‘Three of Him’ is about caring and valuing a relationship. A lady gets into a kind of illusion about her husband; indirectly she has been alluded to save her woman-man relationship. It was perfectly placed. Love and lust are often seen inseparable; however, in the story ‘Madhav and Meera’ we see something like passion and forgiveness to rise higher in the state of love.

Well, since the book is short, so giving all about stories isn’t a fair game. Well, we would recommend you to pick it up right away and refer this book from time and again to get the various moods of various characters presented in the right halo of light. Truly, an engaging set of stories. The author has good narration powers and in the times to come she must try writing a full-length novel to reach the wider base of readers.

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